India's second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 to be launched in mid-April

New Delhi, Jan 14: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that India's second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 will be launched in mid-April.

The 3,890-kg Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, to be launched onboard the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk-3, will orbit around the moon to study its conditions and collect data of its topography, mineralogy and exosphere.

The land rover of Chandrayaan-2 will be separated from the spacecraft after reaching the 100 km lunar orbit. After this it will gradually descend to soft land on the moon to study the lunar surface.

The space agency had earlier said Chandrayaan-2 will be launched in a window from January- 16 February 2019, but due to pending tests that require more time, the agency has revised the launch window to the next available launch window for a moon mission.

The Rs 800-crore Chandrayaan-2 mission takes overs from the Chandrayaan-1 mission nearly a decade ago, also packing an indigenous lander and rover this time around in addition to the orbiter that Chandrayaan-1 did.

The Rs 800-crore Chandrayaan-2 mission comes a decade after the maiden mission Chandrayaan-1 was launched on October 22, 2008 from the country's only spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 90 km northeast of Chennai.